It’s never a good thing when ownership is a major storyline around a team. For the last few seasons, the Dallas Stars ownership has been a problem as the team has and an internal budget and has not been able to spend money like they used to. After narrowly missing the playoffs and losing their most dynamic player, Dallas acquired a new coach and handful of players as they look to transform the face of their team. Needless to say: transition can be tough.

Offense

In recent years, the offense has been the strongest part of the Stars’ lineup. They started last season with James Neal, Brad Richards, and Loui Eriksson creating one of the most dangerous lines in the entire NHL. A year later, Richards is the newest multi-millionaire in on Broadway and Neal has long since been traded to Pittsburgh for help on the blue line. The Stars will ask Mike Ribeiro to move up in the lineup to top-line center with captain Brendan Morrow and newly acquired Michael Ryder on his wings. Loui Eriksson will play with 22-year-old budding star Jamie Benn on another scoring line — potentially with uber-pest Steve Ott. After the top two lines, there’s a huge drop off in offensive talent on the third and forth lines this season. What was a strength only a season ago could be the Achilles’ heel this year.

Defense

Unlike the offense, the Stars defense is in a better position that it was at this time last season. Stephane Robidas is one of the most underrated defensemen in the league and Alex Goligoski showed that he just needed some playing time after he was acquired from the Penguins. Niklas Grossman looks like a solid second pairing defenseman and Trevor Daley continues to tease with potential. Newcomers Sheldon Souray and Adam Pardy will fill depth roles and will join Mark Fistric as bottom pairing defenseman. The Stars bottom pairing guys were a liability at the beginning of last season. They shouldn’t be a huge problem this season.

Goalies

Kari Lehtonen had a breakout season last year proving that he was capable of carrying an NHL team for the majority of the season. The injury-plagued netminder appeared in 69 games last season and posted a decent 2.55 goals against and .914 save percentage. It wasn’t just his numbers that looked good – although they were good – it was the quality of the saves that he was able to make that made him so valuable to the Stars last season. On more than one night during the season, the Stars defense left Lehtonen alone to keep the team in the game. More often than not, he answered the bell. For that matter, Andrew Raycroft came in and showed that he can be an adequate back-up.

Coaching

Glen Gulutzan takes over for Marc Crawford behind the bench in Dallas. The first-time NHL coach has had great success in both the AHL (Texas Stars) and ECHL (Las Vegas Wranglers). Expect the Starts to play with much more defensive structure than they did while Crawford was at the helm. To a man, all of the players who played under him in Austin believe that he’s the right man for the job. Now it’s time to prove it.

Breakout candidate

Watch for Goligoski to take the Western Conference by storm this season. The ‘other guy’ in the James Neal trade showed in the second half that he has the potential to be a work-horse in Dallas. He’ll play big time minutes on the power play and his underrated defensive play will allow Gulutzan to play him in every situation. He never really got the chance to play extended minutes in Pittsburgh because of their depth on the blueline. He won’t have that problem in Dallas. Look for Goligoski to be among the top 10 in defensemen scoring this year.

Best-case scenario

The Stars can hope to have the same type of season that they just completed. They were in a playoff spot for the majority of the season and if it weren’t for a loss on the last day of the season, would have snuck into the 8th spot. Benn will have to step into a larger role this year and a full season with Goligoski will help solidify the blueline. If things fall right, the Stars may find themselves in the same position next April fighting for one of the last playoff spots.

Reality

Losing Richards creates a gigantic hole on the top line. There’s no other way to put it — a team that depended on their scoring last season lost their best scorer. The team challenged up until the last day of the season for a playoff spot last year, but this season looks like it could be a step backwards for the Stars. Look for them to finish fourth in the Pacific Division (an improvement from last season), but chances are they won’t be battling down the stretch for a playoff spot. Think less about the eighth or ninth seed and more along the lines of the 12th spot.